[Advaita-l] Umasahasram

[S.N. Sastri]

Dear Sri Sriram,

  May I add the following about Umasahasram.

Kavyakanta Vasishtha Ganapati Muni said about his work Umasahasram (as
quoted in 'Glory of Vasishtha Ganapati' by S.R. Leela, published by Sri
Aurobindo Kapali Sastry Institute of Vedic Culture, Bangalore):

"Completed was the great poem on time

Inspired by the force of the great teacher Ramana".

He took up this work with the blessing of Bhagavan Ramana. He says that
before he started he had set the following conditions for himself.

"Doing tapas with a light rice diet in the day

And with only water at night,

Umasahasram will be completed in twenty days".

"The verses flowed from my mouth with great ease. The right word emerged at
the right moment inlaid with the appropriate meaning. I felt blessed as the
vow of completing one thousand verses was fulfilled".

  All the above are in the form of Slokas in Sanskrit.

The work was started on Tuesday 25.11.1907 and completed on Sunday
14.12.1907, within twenty days. Later the text was revised seven times as an
act of tapas.

The following is an extract from the book mentioned above:

   Umasahasram is divided into forty stabakas or cantos, each having
twentyfive verses. Each stabaka is in a different metre. Some of the
profound topics analysed in the poem are: the mode of creation, the supreme
form of the great Goddess, the forms of the Vedic and Tantric deities, the
means of getting their favour, yogic experiences got by the grace of the
Goddess, the essential principles of the ten Great Disciplines or Tantric
Vidyas, methods of worshipping them, practice of the Vidyas or Disciplines
enunciated in the upanishads, the secrets behind the famous temple deities
like Madhurai Minakshi and many other topics. All these secrets would have
remained hidden from us but for the luminous Sanskrit Commentary, Prabha, on
this work by his illustrious student Sri T.V. Kapali Sastry. Each verse here
has the potency of of a mantra.

Regards,

S.N.Sastri




This is regarding a query by a list member regarding Uma Sahasram. This work
was the Magnum Opus of Sri Kavyakanta Vashishta Ganapthi Muni, disciple of
Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Sri Nayana(a name kept by Sri Ramanar) is the
incarnation of Dundi Ganapathi of Varanasi.He was the person responsible for
naming  Brahmana Swami who was engaged in natural Tapas at Thiruvannamalai,
Tamilnadu (Arunachala) as Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, after ascertaining his
original name was Venkataramanan. Sri Kavyakanta strong conviction was that
Sri Ramana was the incarnation of Sri Subrahmanya(Thiru Muruga in Tamil).
Sriram